These forms of physical diseases which come under the general head of insanities are far more abstruse than is [316] generally realized. From the standpoint of the esotericist, they fall into the following relatively simple categories:

1. Those where the difficulty is due to the breaking down of the brain tissue. Far more of these are definitely syphilitic in origin than is generally admitted, and I would remind you that, occultly speaking, that would naturally be the case, for the physical sex organs are a lower correspondence of the negative-positive relation existing in the brain between the two head centers and the pituitary and pineal glands.
2. Those where the difficulty is due to the over-stimulation of the brain cells by some forms of energy which over-balance other forms and produce certain serious forms of insanity.
3. Those where there is no real physical difficulty, no lesions, or diseased tissues, but simply a loose connection between the etheric body and the dense physical vehicle. Then obsession or possession can occur. Such cases are frequently (I might say, usually) regarded by the orthodox psychiatrist and medical man as forms of insanity; yet they are not truly so. If the afflicted person can be put again "in possession of himself" by some understanding psychologist, and this is entirely possible, then the trouble is ended. There is a pronounced tendency among the most forward-looking psychologists today, to handle these cases on the hypothesis which I have posited, and that is a definite improvement.
4. Those wherein certain hereditary forms of mental imbalance occur. These forms of imbalance are caused by happenings in other lives and are in the nature of punishment or retributive karma. To bring this about, the soul deliberately chooses for a physical vehicle that form which will have in it certain inherited taints, driven [317] thereto by the Lords of Karma when the soul is unable to grip its vehicle - as is the case in the unevolved; or with purpose and intent, when the body can be under soul direction because highly evolved. I am not listing these different forms of insanity or imbalance under the various headings, as the theme is too complicated, and often there are several predisposing factors, and often only indications of trouble which may never come to anything serious. I am only giving the categories, leaving to the research scholar the task of eventually listing symptoms and assigning due cause, after much experimental work. That time is only just arriving.
5. Those in which the mind is unduly fixed and static and controls the brain so unreasonably that there seems only one point of view, one attitude to life, and no fluidity and capability of adjustment. Such individuals may suffer, for instance, from what is called idée fixe, or they may be completely the victim of some obsessing mental thought. Such mental obsessions can range all the way from a mild fanaticism to religious mania, with its accompanying characteristics of sadism, ruthlessness and general morbidity.

Dementia praecox comes under the first and the fourth groupings and is a blend, usually, of the factors descriptive of both. It is inherited in every case and, if not apparently physically so, is then based on inherited astral conditions, which in their turn aid in determining the physical condition. It is syphilitic in origin (often carried over from another life) and is, in this particular life, quite incurable. Its sexual basis is demonstrated by the fact that it manifests itself in early adolescence. The patient can, however, be greatly helped, in the early stages, if the symptoms are duly recognized and his thought life directed, and the [318] dynamic effectiveness of new interests is employed. A spiritual motivation and like interests can sometimes retard the development of the disease; where this is the case and the matter is handled from early life onwards, the worst climaxes can be obviated. To the extent that the patient intelligently tries to help himself, and is protected also by the intelligent care of the physician, he can offset the trouble a great deal, and particularly as far as its repetition in another life is concerned.

Many of these problems are intrinsically tied up with the past, and until the laws which govern rebirth are given to the world it is difficult for me even to explain the processes governing physical inheritance, karmic results, and also what is called retributive karma. The recognition of the subtler forms of disease, and the aid of the psychologist in collaboration with orthodox medicine (which undoubtedly has its place, as, for instance, in the administration of glandular correctives), plus right hygienic handling from childhood onward, will accomplish much and gradually stamp out the mental and brain diseases which are today so numerous and so distressing.